Low Carbon Shipping & Shipping in Changing Climates

Timetabled to take place a week before the London International Shipping Week 2017, 4th -5th September 2017, the Shipping in Changing Climates consortium’s fourth international conference in association with Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST), will present new research from academia and industry on the latest perspectives on shipping efficiency and emissions.

The conference is framed around ambitious GHG reductions that are required from shipping to keep its emissions in line with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement temperature goals limit the increase in global temperatures to no more than 2°C, aiming for 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and thus provides some direction as to the course of action that the shipping sector needs to take. The consortiums work to date shows that under both the 2°C and 1.5°C framing of climate change (emissions budgets), taking into account the latest IPCC and IMO studies, and shipping maintaining its current share of 2.3 per cent of global emissions, the shipping sector must halve its emissions by 2050 under the 2°C scenario and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 under the 1.5°C scenario. Translating this at the ship level, the aggregate average operational CO2 intensity for all ship sizes of containerships, tankers and dry bulk (which account for over 60 per cent of the shipping sector’s emissions) requires a reduction of 80-90 per cent on 2012 levels by 2050 in the 2°C scenario and net zero emissions in the 1.5°C scenario by 2045.

Keeping the above ambition at the fore, the conference will have papers and presentations from both industry and academia in the following areas, modelling and analysis of the shipping system, alternative fuels, technologies and operations, future trade and transport demand for shipping, policies for accelerating a transition to a low carbon shipping system, finance, investment appraisal and removal of market barriers.